Caroline de Bono

Dengue Fever continues to be a permanent cause for concern, particularly as cases have been rising in unprecedented numbers in Sri Lanka this year.

Dengue can strike anyone and is unpredictable but when a care leaver is affected they don’t normally have the same family safety net that others might take for granted. We have recently supported one of our former transition home residents who contracted Dengue and was unable to pay for urgent medical treatment. We were able to pay his medical bills and liaise with his employer to keep his job open until he had fully recovered.

Of the many care leavers Brighter Path works with, some carry huge trauma from childhood (sometimes from before they went into orphanages, for others arising from their time in orphanages.). These young people have often experienced sexual, physical or psychological abuse in their early years, and for some for a great part of their life. Working through this trauma can take years of hard work, support and encouragement.

One of the many ways we support these care leavers is by providing art therapy in conjunction with mental health support. Our partnership with the wonderful professionals at Vista Counselling allows us to give some of our most vulnerable clients the best possible help.

This year during the extended periods of travel restrictions and lockdown Brighter Path was able to fund the provision of food packs to care leavers throughout the country who were going hungry.

For many care leavers in this period the combination of no income and food inflation (up to 17.5% in one month) meant that they were unable to feed their families and buy basic food essentials.

Food packs included rice, lentils, coconut, onions, milk powder, sugar, flour, tea, chillies and oil.

Many of the care leavers who received these packs have babies and young children so this basic relief made a huge difference on the ground.

The implications of the pandemic for Sri Lanka’s orphanages have been profound.  In normal times local companies and well-wishers provide regular support with donations of food and money. With local curfews and a national lockdown, donations are simply not coming in.  In addition to that the economic situation and escalating food prices in the country mean that organisations and individual donors are not in a position to help as they normally would.  Children are not getting the food and support they need and to put it simply they are going hungry. Brighter Path is working hard with orphanages in the Western Province and in the much more remote Uva Province to help fill the gap.  We have been donating food parcels and prioritising those in greatest need – especially with the provision of high energy foods for young children and milk formula for babies. 

Darshan’s earliest memory is of sitting by the side of the road, laughing and giggling with the woman he still regards as his mother.  He had been abandoned as a small baby by his birth mother. His adoptive mother found him lying in the street and began to take care of him despite struggling with severe mental illness and having no income. His life changed again when his mother was arrested for begging. He was kept by police in a police station before being placed in an orphanage by social services.  He was five years old.

Darshan has a congenitally deformed limb.  He is self-conscious about his appearance but despite such an obvious disability became a superb athlete at the orphanage where he grew up and always held his own in cricket and football.  At his orphanage the children were often made to undertake manual labour and he was always expected to do the same physical tasks as others of his age.

When he was 15 a relative of his adoptive mother visited the orphanage and left him a phone number. At 18 Darshan was ready to leave the orphanage but as a result of his disability he was unable to find any work.  He contacted this relative and re-joined his mother’s family.  Her mental health had deteriorated considerably and the family were living in extreme poverty. The following two and a half years were a time of great hardship for Darshan who was abused by his relatives and was permanently hungry.  He had no means of supporting himself and felt trapped in a remote village.

Eventually Darshan managed to make contact with an old friend from his orphanage. Reluctant to believe that someone might actually help him he nevertheless packed his small bag and made his way back to Colombo. 

By the time he arrived at the Brighter Path transition home Darshan was very nearly broken.  As the door opened and he recognised a familiar face he began to cry.  For the first time in many months he felt safe.  Since then Darshan has worked hard on his recovery with professional support.  It will take a long time for the scars to heal but Darshan is now cautiously optimistic about his future. 

Last month we completed some major adaptation works to the Brighter Path transition home in Colombo to make it suitable for wheelchair users.  The most important part of our project was the creation of a ground floor washroom and the widening of doorways to give wheelchair users full access.  As a result of this work we have now been able to welcome a new care leaver resident who is a full-time wheelchair user. This is fantastic news.  The transition to independent living is challenging enough for most care leavers but those with additional needs can face a particularly bleak future in adulthood. At Brighter Path we are committed to helping all those care leavers in need regardless of disability.  A number of our care leavers have physical and mental health issues but these adaptations to the Colombo transition home significantly increase our ability to help those most vulnerable and in the greatest need.

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted many of the difficulties care leavers around the world struggle with on a daily basis: housing, finance, health care, social support, employment, nutrition and hygiene. In Sri Lanka the situation was no different. 

A typical care leaver in Sri Lanka works in a low-income job with daily wages.  In the national lockdown these jobs disappeared, and workers were laid off.

This in turn created an accommodation crisis.  Care leavers living in cheap, rented accommodation were unable to pay their landlords and faced eviction. Others live in low-cost boarding or hostels attached to their workplace.  They were forced to spend months at a time in cramped accommodation never intended for people to spend extended periods of time in.

Whilst many in society had the option of returning to family homes, often away from the big cities this was not an option for most care leavers.

The Brighter Path transition homes provided a much needed safe space and caring environment in this difficult period. We also made grants to individual care leavers to enable them to stay in their own accommodation.

The Generation Never Give Up network tracked down care leavers in greatest need and sought assistance from partner organisations, particularly aimed at helping those with young families.  We were delighted to respond to both their appeals with generous support.